More on the topic of swearing and emotion

As the mother of two sons, I'm aware of the language differences between teenagers and adults, specifically in regard to lexicon. Both of my sons begin to take an active interest in taboo word use at about twelve years of age. My older son, now twenty, shows a marked decrease in taboo word use. My forty-eight year old husband shows a very marked decrease in taboo word use since I met him at age twenty.


I'm aware of the “common thinking” that males typically converse about non-emotional topics and that females typically converse about emotional topics; I am also aware of the “common thinking” that males use taboo words more frequently than females.

My personal experiences with my family members does not support these common assumptions regarding narrative content.

Because I was intrigued by the possibility of exploring generation (age) of speaker and how generation (age) impacted taboo word use as well as narrative content I researched topic of gender differences in regard to lexicon, especially taboo words, and narrative content.

More soon...